Christmas 2012

This Christmas season was filled with party after party, we were spoiled in 2012 with great gifts, friendships, and family.

First we had Ben's Dad's side.

I forgot to take my camera :( but we did get a video!

Jim and Suzi made a DELISIOUS dinner of honey glazed ham AND a roast with all the fixin's. It was Autumn's first time having mashed potatoes and they were a huge hit! Below is a video of Autumn opening her first Christmas gift from Grandma and Papa!

The phone photo is a little blurry but still lovely! A very successful relaxing party. We finished the night with some very completive wii tetris and with me jumping on their little work out trampoline attempting to go into labor, with zero success:)

The Haynes Family

With my brother and his wife, my parents and our little clan.

This was a very low key Christmas party with Autumn being the only grandchild we could still have an adult party! We had our traditional Christmas eve meal (although it was not Christmas Eve) of cream of broccoli soup... yummm, opened some AMAZING gifts and then fished the night watching the Seahawks game.

Another badly colored family photo, but still lovely.

Notice my mom and Ben are matching, how cute.

Ben's Mom's Party

This party has been a tradition for Ben for a lot of years, eating the same meal every year has become a staple part of the nights celebrations. I ate more then I did for Thanksgiving, might of been a pregnancy thing, but it was all overly scrumptious!

This year there were grand kids galore and I didn't have time to take many photos before the chaos ensued.

I didn't get a picture with everyone :( I was to busy eating.

Christmas Morning

Christmas day is reserved for our little family. We don't go anywhere, we don't have anyone over, we relax as a family and enjoy our own little clan.

This Christmas started off with us having to wake up Autumn. We really enjoyed this because it may just be our last Christmas without kids waking up before us. After we got her up, we had a yummy breakfast casserole, with fresh cinnamon rolls and my very favorite OJ.

We set up the tripod and took a family photo. (I'm going to try to do this every year to see the changes in how our family grows, how our kids get bigger and we...age?)

Then we opened our gifts!

Autumns first 'present'...

What is it....

It's her first bottle of bubble bath!!!! so excited!

Love her!

I got Ben a wheal barrow for all the yard work

I have for him to do this summer :)

Look at that sweet face.

Autumn loves Christmas lights, so we put them all over the floor and turned off all the lights. It was magical.

I was uploading the photos from Christmas and found this one.I am HUGE pregnant but I like this picture, captures my pregnant 'glory'.

Through all the parties and all the gifts, we give our thanks and praises, while remembering the true meaning of Christmas.

John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

As of today I am 38 weeks and 3 days pregnant. This is the longest I have been pregnant. With Autumn I delivered at exactly 38 weeks, but this little man is still happily baking away. I have had false labor for the past two weeks every single day (contractions 5 minutes apart that do nothing, and are especially uncomfortable and not fun). We are ready for little man to be here, but are enjoying our last few days (or weeks) with being a family of three.

As new homeowners to a 'fixer upper' we have a lot a projects on our wish list to revamp so we decided to go for a seriously budgeted nursery. Baby stuff gets expensive quick so I had to be a bit creative with garage sailing and thrift store shopping to make my little mans room come together.

Before:

Here is the room when we bought the house and before we painted the walls and trim, ripped out the carpet, refinished the hardwood floors hidden by the lovely pink carpet, and of course took out those lovely curtains.

After

We ordered the crib from Target.com, and it arrived on our porch in the rain three days early. We didn't have time for a week after it arrived to put it together, so by the time came, I was itching to see it. I happily supervised in the lazyboy while Ben assembled the crib. Which I love! It's simple and not too bulky, giving other things in the room a chance to be the center of attention.

His room is really in the details...

The lazyboy chair is from Ben's late Grandpa Kaemingk,

whom we lost this year. This chair has many memories of him falling asleep with a room full of family, him holding and playing with his great grandchildren, watching many many sports games, and most importantly having conversations with all of us and sharing not only his life, but his wisdom and humor. Our son's middle name is James, honoring both him and Ben's dad. James Kaemingk Sr. and James Kaemingk Jr.

The rug is from Costco and it is HEAVEN to walk on. Softest rug in the world.

Ben made the chalk board below the window. I found the frame randomly on the side of the road in a free pile (which I never, ever, ever stop at, but this frame was calling my name) Ben spray painted the frame white, bought a piece of plywood, painted it with chalk board paint and attached the two. TADA! Chalk board, which Autumn LOVES to write on and scratch her fingernails across.

The W is from a baby shower Bonnie Kaemingk threw me. It was the brown cardboard color as a center piece on her burlap/ shabby chic themed food table. It was part of my gift, (which I was thrilled about) brought it home and Ben spray painted it black. It is perfect for above the crib because it's nice and light, has a story, and if it conks my little fella in the head one day, it will only scare him, not decapitate him.

The fabric you see draping the W and the chalk board is a string of felt leaves I cut and strung as a cheap color pop in the room.

The BABY sign above the changing table I made out of those cardboard letters, covered it in burlap and painted them white. They were in Autumn's nursery as a newborn and the plan is to pass it down through all our kids.

The pillow on the lazyboy is one I made from some fabric I got from Ruffles and Rust.

The red outdoor pillows, the mobile and the WONDERFUL cow painting on the wall is all from my grandparent Haynes. My grandma called me asking if I wanted these outdoor pillows she bought that didn't work for her house. I put them under the crib to store them until I could decide what to do with them, I ended up liking the different look of pillows rather then a bed skirt so we stuck with that. Plus Autumn likes to pull them out and jump on them so that will be fun for brother and sister to do together (when he is old enough of course).

The red night stand that Ben's guitar is sitting on is one I got from a garage sale for free and spray painted. The lantern is from Ruffles and Rust along with the very cool old western book.

The fabric on the shelves of the changing table is an old skirt my mother-in-law Suzi found. It is an old western pattern she used to cover a table with for my western themed baby shower she threw me (adorable). I cut it in half and covered the shelves to add color interest to the plain changing table.

The old long horn and horses are from my childhood. They were my favorite toys growing up, not only because I would steal them from my brother, but because they are pretty darn cool.

Above the door there are old western drawings of real towns and valleys in the US, I found them at a garage sale and snagged them for $2.00

The collage of pictures is a random assortment. Right above the light switch is a hand stitched picture of a red barn that great great grandma Kaemingk made, that fits perfectly in the room.

I asked my grandma if she would paint something for little man's room. I asked for a cow, and she told me it might end up looking like a goat, but she would try. She was obviously just being modest, because its amazing and exactly what I had imagined to fill that wall space. She also surprised me with the painting of the tail. :)

We still have a few things to do, like make selves on the shutter doors behind the lazy boy, and hang and wire the light, but those things can wait :)

My favorite part about his room is the view from his crib to Autumn's. One day I know this is going to be fun or trouble but I can't wait to find out which one.

Autumns Room

The Before, notice the lovely curtains continuing across the hall yet the carpet isn't pink its a beautiful shade of blue. Luckily for us we knew the hardwood floors were hidden under these pink and blue carpets. So we...ripped up the carpets, took down the curtains and painted the walls.

After

The window to nowhere is from the restore that I painted to match the little blue adorable desk that Gramdma suzi gave to Autumn. The window is draped with a simple paper banner I cut out and glued burlap hearts to.

The bench for the desk is an old piano bench I got a goodwill and reupholstered.

The two chairs I got off of criagslist for $5.00 that I painted grey. I'm not a huge fan of them so they will be replaced by a big old rocking chair or a little twin sleeper couch I have waiting for me to finish in our garage.

The beautiful white dresser was a gift for her birthday from her Great grandma Anna-Lea whom she is named after (My mom's mom). We LOVE the dresser! this little woman of ours has a ton of clothes so its nice to finally have a dresser to put them in instead of boxes in the closet!

The chandelier is from our wedding ceremony <3

We are excited and thankful to be homeowners, and to have a house we can make memories in with our family. We are looking forward to the future and the changes this little man is about to make in our lives <3

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus

Sunday, October 28, 2012

One year ago today, I was swollen faced, exhausted, drugged and thrilled to be holding my little girl in my arms. Today Autumn turned one. I can not even believe that a year has gone by. My precious little bundle is just about to walk, has likes, dislikes, a sense of humor and six whole teeth!

October 28, 2012

We celebrated Autumn's birthday at our new house with family and friends.

Thanks to Bonnie and my dad for taking the photos of the party!

I went a little overboard...

Maybe really overboard...

I might of eaten a cup cake (or three) while setting up :)

Her month pictures lined the mantel to show how she changed month to month

Autumn was taking notes for next year on how to blow out a candle.

We were blessed with so many great gifts and even better company!

She got a rocking lion from Grandma Janet that she absolutely LOVES

Towards the end she started to understand there were fun things in the bags

After the cupcakes, gifts and attention, she was a little giggle monster, an extreme sugar high kind of attitude. Everyone left by 6:45 when we gave her dinner and shortly after we put her in her high chair we look over and see this...